Shattered Dreams
Jacob, Rachel and the Love Triangle
Rev. Mike Browder
February 13, 2011
The life of the Old Testament patriarch, Jacob, in the Book of Genesis would make a great movie. It’s got intrigue. It’s got conflict. It’s got chase scenes. It’s got an incredible plot. I don’t know why it’s never been made into an epic movie. But, what really interests us today is that it has romance. Great stuff for this season of Valentine’s Day.
When we begin today’s episode, Jacob is arriving in the land of Haran. Of course, you remember the previous episodes: How he and his brother Esau were born as twins. Esau was the older brother. Esau was the ruddy, masculine one, a great hunter, favorite of his father, a man’s man.
Jacob, the younger twin, was the fair-skinned mama’s boy. He was quick with his wits, a real schemer. He had already tricked his somewhat dim-witted older brother into trading his birthright for a bowl of stew. Then, with his mother’s help, he had tricked his blind father into giving him the blessing that was meant for the oldest. When the swarthy, militant Esau found out he had been cheated again, Jacob was forced to flee for his life. As today’s story begins, he has just arrived at a well in Haran, the land of his mother’s people.
While Jacob is chatting with the men at the well, Rachel approaches with a flock of sheep. Now, the Hebrew text of the Bible says that Rachel was “beautiful of face” and “beautiful of figure.” By the way, this was a contrast to Rachel’s older sister, Leah. I would translate the Hebrew description of Leah as saying; “It made your eyes tired just to look at her!”
So, Jacob looked up, and there was Rachel, “Fair of face, and fair of figure.” And let me tell you, it was love at first sight. He was smitten. Cupid had shot an arrow right through that boy’s heart. And I’ll tell you what. Through all the trials and tribulations of the rest of the Book of Genesis, he loved that girl until the day he died. Now that’s a love story! That’s a Valentine right there.
So, the Bible says that Jacob went right over and kissed Rachel. That boy didn’t waste any time! And it says that Rachel ran and told her father. That’s my kind of girl, right there! A strange boy comes up and kisses her, and she runs right straight and tells her father. May all of you fathers have daughters like that!
Well, it turns out that Rachel is Jacob’s cousin, and her father Laban is his uncle. So Jacob has to kiss Laban too. Yuk! (But they’re Middle Eastern and they do that sort of thing.) Laban opens the full doors of Bedouin hospitality to his long-lost nephew. And Jacob starts helping out on the farm.
After a month, Laban comes to him and says, “Even if you are my kin folk, I can’t let you go on working for free. Tell me what I should pay you.”
Well, since the first day he arrived in town, Jacob has only had one thing on his mind: Rachel. He has been thinking about her day and night. She is the personification of all his hopes and dreams. So he says to Laban, “I will work for you for seven years. Just give me your daughter Rachel for my wife.” And Laban said, “I’d rather give her to you than another man. You just stay right on here with me.”
Now the Bible says that Jacob was really in love. It says that he was so much in love that those seven years seemed like only a few days to him.
And finally, the day of his dreams arrived. Do you think he hadn’t been counting exactly what day it was going to be? So he goes and says to Laban,
“My time is done. Give me wife. I want to finally consummate our marriage.”
So they have a big celebration, Middle Eastern Style. And like the Bedouin herdsmen today, late in the night, the bride, in her thick veil, is brought to the husband, and they spend their wedding night together. This is, without a doubt, the happiest moment in Jacob’s life.
But, in the morning, when Jacob wakes up, in the daylight, he realizes that he has been married to Leah! He has just spent his wedding night with Leah! Not the beautiful, curvaceous Rachel, the desire of his heart. (Just loving her made seven years seem like nothing.) He is not married to Rachel. He is married to Leah! This is the absolute worst moment of his life.
Have you ever had a moment like this? A moment when you realize that your dream is gone. Lost forever! And you realize you are stuck for the rest of your life with something else, something much less satisfying than what you’d dreamed of. Rachel is the symbol of our dream. Leah is the symbol of harsh reality. Imagine: waking up and realize you’re next to Leah. Your dream is gone.
All of us have experiences like that at some point. Susan and I love the movie, Overboard, starring Goldie Hawn. She is a wealthy woman who gets amnesia, and she is adopted a shack-trash slob of a widower, with a house full of wild, mean, dirty, unruly children. Playing on her amnesia, he convinces her that she is his wife, and that she should be slavishly laboring to care for him and his brood. Our favorite moment is when Goldie Hawn wakes up one morning, and looking at the filth and noise and squalor, all around her, with an innocent lament, she says, “I didn’t marry well, did I?” (I’m not sure why Susan loves that line so much.)
If you are that person, who wakes up next to Leah, with your dream gone, do not despair. God is still with you. He has other dreams for you. He is still planning to bless you. In ways you haven’t imagined yet.
Well, Jacob is angry. He goes running back to Laban. He cries, “What have you done?!” I have worked these seven years for Rachel. Now you have given me Leah. You have deceived me! You have cheated me! You have broken my heart. How could you do this? You were my closest friend, my very own family.
Now, everyone who is familiar with Jacob’s story knows the irony here. Jacob is famous for deceiving and cheating other people. Even his name, in Hebrew, means “Cheat.” So, the reader knows that Jacob, who has deceived and cheated others, is now getting his come-uppance, his just deserts.
Laban reminds Jacob, “You didn’t read the small print. I said to stick with me. I never specifically said I was giving you Rachel. In our culture, we have to marry off the oldest daughter first. I tell you what, though, I did say I would rather Rachel go to you than anyone else. You work for me another seven years, and I will give you Rachel also.
And so Jacob was forced to work for another seven years. And he was willing to do it, because he loved Rachel, and he couldn’t live without her. I tell you this is a real love story. How many men would give fourteen years of their life just to marry the woman of their dreams? Finally, after all these years, Jacob and Rachel together at last. “Happily ever after.”
Did I say “happily ever after”? Real life seldom turns out like that. God intends marriage to be between one man and one woman. By having two wives, Jacob was tempting fate. It may have been permitted by the Bedouin
culture where he lived, but he had stepped beyond God’s plan. Later, by sleeping with his wives servants, he further transgressed God’s law. As a result, Jacob was not completely happy, or completely fulfilled. Our society today, with so many examples of multiple sexual partners, we could learn something from Jacob and his unhappiness, in straying from God’s plan.
I feel sorry for both Rachel and Leah. They were never happy, and they were so jealous of each other. Leah was jealous of Rachel, because Jacob loved her. Rachel was jealous of Leah, because she had children so easily and quickly, big strong boys that meant so much to Jacob. In the end, Rachel had a son, Joseph. He was so spoiled, and arrogant, and alienated from his brothers, that they sold him into slavery.
I feel sorry for both Rachel and Leah. One writer calls their story “Desperate Housewives.” I think I feel especially sorry for Leah. To be the homely sister, not loved by her husband. It was her sons, her boys, that became her pride and joy in life. In the end, Jacob’s sons became the Twelve Tribes of Israel. But it was Leah’s son Judah, who became the namesake of Jacob’s descendants forever. The word Jew is a form of the word Judah.
Well, what an epic story, this story of Jacob. Full of drama, intrigue, romance, conflict. It certainly lived up to its billing. What are we to learn from this today? Well, for one thing, we learn that romantic love is a powerful thing. And it is a wonderful gift from God. But, if it is not expressed according to God’s plan, it can lead to trouble.
In this story, we also see the power of a dream. And the pain of a dream that is lost, the pain of a broken heart. We see that God has a dream for us too. He is with us when we are broken-hearted. And when we find his dream for us, there is hope and happiness. It took many, many years, not until he was old and grey, but even Jacob, the cheat, Jacob the red-hot lover, even he finally came close to God, and lived happily ever after.
Let us pray. Dear God, be with us love-smitten people. Hear our dreams, but lead us in the right way, Lord, to your dreams for us. Be with us through life’s ups and downs, as surely as you were with Jacob. And finally, dear Savior, let us live happily-ever-after with you. Amen.